So about Summoner...

[Megguido]

Progression is most definitely a part of raiding, and certainly an important part, but again, I'm merely stating that RDM is outright useless outside of it regardless of how good it is in progression. [...]

Also, DRK's defensive kit is only a portion of its issues. The main problem is that it has to work harder to do the kinds of things that come to warrior and paladin near-effortlessly, and in many cases it's still inferior due to conflicting or outright bad design. Dark Arts spam, stance-locked abilities/effects, a complete lack of burst, and living dead being nearly useless at best are all glaring issues with its toolkit, without even getting into its bizarre MP misalignment and completely gutted kit. It's not nearly as dramatic as the list would imply, but they are major issues that need to be addressed regardless.

Now that's some hyperboles.

RDM is great in progression and with "not-top-level-players". Because you can prog and clear O8S while being somewhat a casual player. Then, when you clear the content consistently, RDM doesn't become "useless", it becomes "not optimal".

On DRK side (lulz), the main issue IMO is people complaining its too easy to play because of the 1-2-3 spam meme, but can't play it properly because it's actually more complicated than that. Dark Arts is only spammed in the opener, overall it's about 6 DA a minute. SMN is using like 20 Ruin spells a minute and is far from being broken. If you mindlessly spam DA, then you'll eventually run out of MP, and you're doing things wrong anyway.

This argument "but I have to press more buttons to do the same thing than XXX" is really terrible imo. Someone on this topic already mentionned that SE doesn't balance jobs on their difficulty. If I'd want a tank job than press only two buttons to do damage, I'd be a WAR main. DRK is the only high-cpm fast-paced tank, please don't dumb it down to WAR's level. If I follow your reasoning, how come RDM should have as much damage as SMN while being easier to play and less buttons to push, and no pets to manage ?

a complete lack of burst

I played both PLD and DRK this tier, and PLD's DPS is streamlined as much as DRK's. I must say that WAR's burst is so great, noodle mode for 80s after unleashing your IR. DRK can actually manage its own "burst" windows, pooling ressources for Trick Attacks for example. It's not because you don't have a "10s +50% dmg buff" that you don't have any burst.

and living dead being nearly useless

First consider that both WAR and DRK need healing after their invuln. It's just that WAR doesn't require 100% HP back. You won't leave WAR at 20% HP after Holmgang cause it will die after the next auto.
Second, LD is longer, and its duration only starts when dropping to 1 HP, not when you actually push the button.
Third, we definitely live in a world where Lustrate, Exogitation, Essential Dignity, Benediction are a thing. If two healers cannot bring 65k HP back in 9 full seconds, there's an issue with said healers, not Living Dead.

Overall, learn more, play smarter, and you'll see that DRK's kit isn't as gutted as you think it is.

Also, sorry for being out of topic.